Paradiso. Paradise.

Well I do believe that today will definitely make up for yesterday's lack of an exciting blog. There is a lot of text in the beginning but there are about 40 pictures so it's worth it!!
This morning I got up bright and early to head to my 9 am Art History class.
Today we met in class for lecture first before heading out to look at some art.
The topic of today's class (and about half of today's blog) was St. Francis of Assisi and Mendicant churches. (If this does not interest you feel free to skip down to the second half of today's blog. Although even if you are not Catholic it is pretty interesting.)

First things first. For those of you that travel, (especially within Italy) when you first arrive to a new city, the topography of the city will usually reflect who founded it. For example if the city is in a flat plain or valley, it was usually founded by the Romans. Why? Because the Romans pretty much controlled the entire area, and had a large army. Now, if the town is perched up on a hill, like Assisi, you can guess that the town is pre-Roman. It would be perched up on a hill for protection.
So, Assisi. Assisi is in the region of Umbria. Here is located the Basilica of San Francesco. The architect of the Basilica is unknown, just like the frescos inside have unknown authorship. (They claim that Giotto is the artist, but there is no official proof. As we saw the comparisons there is just something "missing" in the Assisi frescos. They don't have quite as much emotion and storytelling.)
The interesting thing about this Basilica, besides that St. Francis is buried there, is that the church has two architectural styles. Romanesque and Gothic. This is because there are actually two churches that were built on top of each other. The church's primary function is as a pilgrimage church. (The Catholic church would promise you forgiveness of your sins if you made a pilgrimage. Say you could not get to Rome, but went to another church (for example Basilica of St. Francis) when you go to purgatory half of your sins would be forgiven and you would then have less time in purgatory. If you could go to Rome, to see St. Peter, all of your sins would be forgiven. (I did not know this until today, but it looks like I'm in the clear seeing I saw St. Peter's bones last time I was in Italy!) Random fact: I'm not sure if I learned this earlier in my life and I forgot it or not, but I learned that the Pilgrims (as in Plymouth rock) are called Pilgrims because they were on a pilgrimage for religious freedom. And the definition of a pilgrimage is a journey with a religious purpose.

St. Francis is considered to be the 2nd most important revolutionary, after Christ. Of whom he bears many similarities. He died at 44,also a double number. (Christ died at 33.)
He is considered a penitent saint, which means he lived part of his life in sin, before having a conversion to a pious life. One of the things St. Francis is well known for is his stigmata. (These are the wounds that correspond to Christ's wounds from crucifixion.) Although many people throughout history have had, or claimed to have (depends on what you believe) stigmata, St. Francis was the first. Interesting fact is that St. Francis was canonized as a saint 2 years after he died, despite there being a 5 year minimum waiting time. That is how big of a deal he was during that time.

On to Santa Croce. (This is where we went with my class. I talked about it a little on Monday of this week.) The name of the church (Holy Cross) was so chosen because the Franciscans were the protectors of the last remains of the cross that Christ was crucified on. Three years before St. Francis died he rewrote the rule of order of the Franciscans. (Previously they were not allowed to build churches.) He said that if for some extraordinary reason that you should build a church, I strictly prohibit the use of three things: paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows. This was because he felt that they were over the top lavish items that took away from the true purpose. (Franciscans take a vow of poverty. This vow makes them a Mendicant order. Mendicant comes from an Italian word for beggar.) Well, despite this being the largest Franciscan church, they did not follow his instructions very well. All three of these things can be found in great abundance within the church. This is because many rich banking families lived in the neighborhood. When they found out that a church was going to be built dedicated to the most popular saint of the time, they all wanted in on the action. They saw this as an investment. How did they invest? Buy purchasing chapels and tombs for burial. On Monday I told you that the chapels that were the most expensive, were the closest to the altar. (This being not only because it showed the family's status, but that also hoped some of that holiness from the relics would rub off on them in the afterlife and help them into heaven. It's all about proximity! The same idea is behind the pilgrimage.) Those that couldn't afford a chapel chose the burials in the floor of the church, as I showed you. What I didn't know on Monday was that there was an option for those that had even less money. If you wanted to be represented in the church, but didn't have enough money for burial, you could pay to have your family's coat of arms displayed in the church.

So this church is a Basilica. This is an honorary title given usually because there is something of interest and importance at the church. (Usually relics of a saint.) But being a Basilica also means that the church has a rectangular shape with a series of aisles. Despite Santa Croce being a Basilica it is not just in a rectangular shape. It is in a T shape. Churches are usually in a 'T' or 't' shape. When this cross aisle (the transept) appears in the design of churches, it is said to be symbolic of the cross of Christ. Coincidentally this addition coincides with when the restrictions on who could be buried in a church (previously only Kings and priests) were lifted , thus increases the space available for real estate! (More chapels!)

 

Interestingly, the church of Santa Croce is a Gothic style church. The noun being 'goth'. This derived from the northern Europeans such as the Visigoths. (Who just so happened to invade Florence.) Still having bad feelings about this, and associating the church with such Barbarians, the church was "renaissanced" in 1570. (The term "gothic" was coined in Florence.) "Renaissanced" means that the walls were white washed, removing all of the Gothic frescoes, side altars were added, and the rood wall was removed. (Renaissance spaces were to be unified spaces.) For those that don't know, a rood wall was a partition that separated the clergy from the lay people within a church. They did not interact.

The priest would give his homily from here. This was the only place the priest would interact with the congregation. (This was placed on the congregation side of the rood wall.)

Here's the door to get up into the pulpit area.

This is all that is left of the rood wall. (The bricks seen stacked next to the column.)

You may have noticed the date that the wall was taken down. 1570. The rest of the rood walls would not be taken down in Catholic churches until after Vatican Council II. (The Florentines did it 400 years earlier, for aesthetic reasons.)

 

These are pictures from a courtyard of Santa Croce.





 *********Ok. End of part 1.  Here's where you get overloaded with pictures!************

After my class I went to lunch with a few of my friends. I took them to PaniniK. (The place with the great view over the river.) They loved it, and we've decided we're going to be going back a lot!
It was even nicer today then it was the last time I was there. (It was 60 degrees and sunny today. I didn't wear my coat!)

Today I got the turkey and pesto panini. It was wonderful!

After lunch I decided that because it was so nice outside that I would head back to the Boboli Gardens. (We went there during one of my first days, but we didn't get to stay for very long.) So today since I had nothing to do the rest of the day it was a perfect time to explore!
Just to give you a frame of reference of how far I walked and how big the gardens are, I provide you with this map.

 I entered over by the letter X, then walked my way up the hill past letters F, H, and up to I. I then proceeded over to the left, to E, then C, then back up to E to go across the garden by letter D. I followed that over to letter J, going down the hill towards L and then N. I then proceeded back up towards where I came in, stopping over by P and R, then S and finally back to X.
There were many different types of paths, all over the place. At some points I just stood there staring at the 5 paths before me trying to decide which way to go. I felt like I was completely transported out of Florence into Paradise. It would be very easy to spend all day in there, wandering around. Luckily I get free admission with my Museum card, so I can go back as many times as I'd like! :) I definitely will be doing this when I just need a relaxing day away from the hustle of the city. (FYI: The pictures are not in the order that I walked.)

 

The main building you see is the Pitti Palace.

 

Standing at the top of this structure I had the city view in front of me, and the countryside behind me.

The city side view.

The countryside view.

There were many sculptures within the gardens. Some more traditional and some modern.

So happy on such a beautiful day!

 

By this time when I took this picture the paths seemed never ending and I had no idea how far I was from my exit. (There were multiple exits, but you can end up in very different places of the city depending on where you go in versus go out. So I had to get back to the one that I knew.)

Afte two hours of walking around I then returned home, completely exhausted, and took a nap. I spent the rest of the evening reading and relaxing. Dinner tonight was delicious. (Do I use that word too much? I can't help it, everything is delicious.) We had some tri-colored linguine in a red sauce, then a frittata, a quiche, and some fennel. That quiche was INCREDIBLE! I had 2 pieces. :)

CONGRATULATIONS! You've made it to the end of the longest blog yet! :)